Garbage woes for Chandigarh civic body: Writes to govt to include city in solid waste planthttps://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/garbage-woes-for-chandigarh-civic-body-writes-to-govt-to-include-city-in-solid-waste-plant-4540965/

THE CHANDIGARH Municipal Corporation has written to the Punjab government if Chandigarh could also be included in the solid waste cluster plant being planned at Dera Bassi. Talking to The Chandigarh Newsline, municipal joint commissioner Manoj Khatri said: “We have written to the urban local bodies of the Punjab government to incorporate us in the cluster they are planning at a village near Dera Bassi.”

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By clustering means that the plant at the site would process garbage of four to five neighbouring areas and there would be no need to have a garbage processing plant at every place.

As the situation of sanitation in Chandigarh is worsening, the MC decided to write the letter.

With the UP-based company refusing to take over the operations of the garbage plant at Dadumajra, the civic body has been left in the lurch as the termination of mutual agreement with the Jaypee group, running the plant at present, would be executed in March and there is no company till now to take over the operations from next month.

An expression of interest has also been called for from a company that can take over the operations of the garbage plant, in the same manner in which Jaypee was doing till now.

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After taking a decision that the MC and Jaypee would mutually terminate the agreement, the Jaypee group had asked for payment of salvage value. Councillors had raised the issue that not the MC, but the new company that was taking over, should pay the salvage value of nearly Rs 30 crore. Sources said the UP-based company did not find the deal financially viable when it was asked to pay the salvage value.

In 2005, the civic body had signed a contract with the Jaypee group for 30 years. However, the tussle over non-payment of tipping fee forced them to cancel the contract. The Jaypee group kept sending letters to the civic body saying it was running into losses and demanded the tipping fee.

The Jaypee group then suspended operation on July 11 last year. After the MC moved the NGT, the court directed them to resume operations immediately.

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Later, because the company pleaded that it was incurring losses, NGT directed the civic body to resolve the issue amicably. It was then decided to mutually terminate the agreement and put the new company in charge.